Yousaf: I will not quit
First Minister’s vow as he faces two no confidence votes
HUMZA YOUSAF has insisted he will not resign as First Minister, despite now facing two knife-edge confidence votes in Holyrood next week.
It was another chaotic day yesterday for the embattled SNP leader, whose shock decision to throw the Scottish Greens out of government has left Holyrood reeling and led to questions about his trustworthiness and leadership
The First Minister was due to give a major speech on the labour market at lunchtime yesterday, but with his own job hanging in the balance he cancelled with a couple of hours’ notice.
Instead, he headed to Dundee, where he made an announcement about affordable housing.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said he wanted to “reset” his administration now the Bute House Agreement had been terminated. He said he had written to all of the Holyrood leaders inviting them to a meeting in an attempt to “make minority government work”.
There is, however, little prospect of the other parties working to support the First Minister.
The first motion of no confidence to be voted on by MSPS, tabled by the Scottish Conservatives, is on Mr Yousaf as First Minister.
The second, tabled yesterday by Scottish Labour, is on the Scottish Government.
While losing the first would be politically embarrassing for the
SNP leader, losing the second would – as per the Scotland
Act – require Mr Yousaf and all of his ministers to resign.
Scottish Labour leader Anas
Sarwar, pictured right, said
MSPS from across parliament should support his motion.
“Removing Humza Yousaf alone will not deliver the change we need
– we need to get rid of the entire SNP government that has left almost one in six Scots on an NHS waiting list, public finances in chaos and public services at breaking point.”
The SNP has 63 MSPS. However, the opposition parties have a combined total of 65. Both no confidence votes require only a simple majority.
All parties bar Alba have said they will back Douglas Ross’s motion on Mr Yousaf’s record.
So far, only the Tories and Libdems have confirmed they will support Scottish Labour’s bid to oust the First Minister.
Both Alba and the Greens expressed some scepticism, though neither have explicitly ruled out voting for the measure.
Scottish Greens co-convenor Patrick Harvie said Mr Yousaf “very clearly” did not have the confidence of parliament.
“We said the responsibility of the decision is on him. He needs to bear the consequences of that reckless and damaging decision.
“I think it’s pretty clear he’s not the person who is going to be able to bring together a majority of parliament.”
Asked if there was any way back for Mr Yousaf in terms of working with the Greens, Mr Harvie said the First Minister had “broken trust”. He added: “He still hasn’t really given any clarity on why he made such a dramatic U-turn and broke a promise on which he was elected as First Minister.
“So it’s very difficult to see how you can have a conversation that leads to a constructive outcome on the basis of that lack of trust.”
A senior Green source told The Herald the news had upset SNP MSPS.
“We’ve had a steady stream of senior SNP people coming downstairs [to the Green party offices in Parliament], some of them clearly emotional, because a lot of time has been spent with our MSPS and their MSPS and ministers, building up a progressive working relationship as part of a pro-independence Scottish Government.”
“There’s been surprise and distress,
I don’t think that would be too strong a word,” they added.
Speaking to journalists in Dundee, Mr Yousaf said he did not regret the ending of the Bute House Agreement but that it was not his intention to upset the Greens. He said he “really valued the contribution” of
JOURNALISTS, jibes and jeopardy – Dundee was perhaps the perfect backdrop for Humza Yousaf’s embryonic attempt at redirecting a premiership that has gone quite flamboyantly off course.
In a week of unplanned and unexpected events, yesterday lunchtime the First Minister paid a last-minute visit to Hillcrest Housing Association’s development of new flats in the city.
It came as a surprise to residents and to the reporters who were expecting Mr Yousaf to be in Glasgow.
Word, however, began to spread just before 9am that the planned visit to the University of Strathclyde had been suddenly binned, becoming official just less than an hour later.
Mention was also beginning to be made of an unexpected visit to Dundee but the details were vague – a cynic might say the short notice was an attempt to avoid the inevitable scrum of media showing up.
Despite a late calling notice, the ploy failed and Mr Yousaf was faced with a wall of cameras and questions in a small carpark at the centre of the brown brick flatted development.
If anyone thought there might be any depth of interest in the Scottish Government’s announcement of £80million in funding for affordable housing and homelessness, they had another thing coming.
The focus was entirely on the question of the week: will Mr Yousaf stay or will he go?
Will he end his relationship with the position of First Minister before he is dumped from it? The SNP leader was bullish throughout questioning by successive reporters: he’s going nowhere. So he says now.
This, of course, was the First Minister attempting to position his post-greens government as one of practical matters, of one capable of tackling the issues voters really care about.
The SNP has been governing on a #Bekind philosophy, a desperation to be “progressive” at all costs, despite a persistently vague notion of what the word actually means.
Millions of pounds in funding might sound relatively straightforward as far as good news goes but it does not come without its problems.
At a national level, the Scottish Government cut £196m from the country’s affordable housing budget; figures last month show housing associations built the lowest number of new homes last year than at any point since 1988.
More locally, the Hillcrest project is years late, over budget and suffered teething problems during the building process.
Gemma Donaldson, 29, and Georgia-ann Barclay, 28, are sharing a flat at the Hillcrest development having waited four years for a socially rented home to become available.
They are delighted with the property, as is their nine-month-old puppy Fry who assessed the media scrum with a languid yawn and went for a little nap.
What do they think about the breakdown in the relationship between the Scottish Greens and the SNP?
“I have always voted SNP,” Ms Barclay said, “Because they are inclusive. I like that they worked with the Greens in government and I’m worried about what happens now.”
Ms Donaldson, looking over at where Mr Yousaf was being grilled by the latest in a line of broadcast journalists, added: “She likes Nicola Sturgeon better.”
“Don’t say that,” Ms Barclay said, alarmed at being overheard. “Though it’s true,” she added.
Just last week Mr Yousaf lent his weight to a fundraising event organised by the SNP MP Tommy Sheppard.
Held in Portobello Town Hall, the evening was hosted by the crime author Val Mcdermid, whose questioning of Mr Sheppard and of Mr Yousaf gently explored one or two of the slew of recent issues that have plagued the First Minister.
Little would he have realised that exactly a week later his job would be on the line. But, at what must feel like an age ago, Ms Mcdermid asked him how he copes with the criticisms levelled as part of the job. She said criticisms; Mr Yousaf referred to the “s*** that’s thrown at him”.
In response, the FM said he meditates every day and focuses on the positives in his life. What are the positives of his current situation, The Herald asked Mr Yousaf in Dundee.
Other than the £80m funding announcement.
“I’m grateful for lots of things in life,” he said, referencing his small daughter. “I woke up this morning with my four-year-old, soon to be five, in my bed and was able to spend some time getting her ready for nursery, to brush her hair, to get her changed, to get her ready, so
I’m grateful for all the things in my life – family, friends.
“But also I am genuinely grateful to ... not just grateful ... it’s a huge honour for me to be leader of, not just my party, but my country and it’s my intention to fight that vote of no confidence and I intend to win it.”
Mr Yousaf also said he is confident that he has the backing of his cabinet as being the right person to lead the SNP through the forthcoming general election and any possible snap Holyrood election.
One party insider, who supports the end of the Bute House Agreement but not how the breakup was handled, told The Herald they are less confident in Mr Yousaf’s future than the First Minister professes himself to be.
“He is damned either way,” they said. “He can try to focus on these concrete issues like housing, but voters are canny to cynical moves.”
It’s a huge honour for me to be leader of, not just my party, but my country